$100 in 1973 is worth $517 in 2012,
because prices increased 417.1% over that period, an average of
4.30% a year.
$100 in 1973 has
the same buying power as
$517
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
417.1%
Average inflation rate
4.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$517
Price difference ($100 base)
$417
CPI in 1973
44.4
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1973 → 2012
$517
$100 in 2012 → 1973
$19.34
What happened to prices between 1973 and 2012
Between 1973 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 44.4 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 417.1%, which works out to an average of
4.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1973 bought what
$0.19 buys in 2012: the 1973 dollar
lost 80.7% of its purchasing power over
these 39 years.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
Every 1973 amount converts to 2012 at the same ratio, 5.17: $1,000 becomes
$5,171, and $10,000 becomes $51,710.
Amount in 1973
Value in 2012
$1.00
$5.17
$5.00
$25.86
$10.00
$51.71
$20.00
$103
$50.00
$259
$100
$517
$500
$2,586
$1,000
$5,171
$5,000
$25,855
$10,000
$51,710
$100,000
$517,104
$1,000,000
$5,171,036
Inflation by spending category, 1973–2012
Between 1973 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 969.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 95.5%, against 417.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1973
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1973 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.30%
$517
Medical care
6.26%
$1,069
Energy
5.60%
$837
Housing
4.42%
$541
Transportation
4.36%
$528
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.23%
$504
Food
4.13%
$485
Apparel
1.73%
$195
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1973: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1973 to 2012
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 9.24% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1973–2012 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1973, at end
1973–1980
9.24%
85.6%
$186
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$294
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$388
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$491
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$517
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1973
$100 from 1973 had already become $325 by
1993, on its way to $517 in 2012; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1973 had the buying
power of $517; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1973 to 2012: $100 is worth $517 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1973 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1973-to-2012/